Broken Things
by tilante
Summary: Justin and Max deal with their memories of their alternates from evil Justin's universe.  AGP-verse.  If that doesn't make sense, you might want to start with other stories in the series.  Jalex, Malex.
1. Chapter 1

Foreword:

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've read at least some of my other works set in my "Alex Gets Punished" universe. In that case, you should know that _Broken Things_ tells some of the story of Justin's evil alternate (from _Fun and Games_ and _Normal Life_) and of Max's alternate. The Alex here is the Alex from the alternate universe, and will not behave much like the Alex we know and love. She's much too broken for that.

If none of that makes sense to you, it might be best to start with other stories of mine. The aforementioned _Fun and Games_ and _Normal Life_ should give the background needed.

You may notice Justin switching back and forth between "I" and "he" in the narration here. That's deliberate. For the most part, he's saying "I", since he has these memories, and remembers doing these things, but sometimes, he feels a need to distance himself from things.

Oh, and a **warning**: the evil Justin is sexually and emotionally abusive to Alex, and physically and emotionally abusive to Max. If you've been abused or raped, there may be triggers here. Use your own good sense in reading, and if something gets too bad, stop.

_

* * *

Some love's just a lie of the soul_

_A constant battle for the ultimate state of control_

_After you've heard lie upon lie_

_There can hardly be a question of why_

_- _Billy Joel, "Matter of Trust"

1: Justin

I looked down at my sleeping sister, traced my fingers across her shoulder, down her arm. She didn't stir at all - she was still exhausted, from what we'd done earlier, and I was happy about that. It made things easier.

Her hair was in the way, and I smoothed it away, to the side, ran my fingers through it as I did. We both loved her hair. He put his fingers against her temple. He knew he didn't need to for the spell, but... he liked doing it, liked touching her, especially when she didn't know, or didn't want him to.

* * *

Justin shook his head, paused in his narration. "I have all the memories, but I still don't understand it. He tried to deny it, but I think he loved her, in some kind of twisted way." He looked up at Rose, swallowed, shook his head. "How could he love her, and still treat her like that?"

"I don't know," she answered, "but the fact that you have that question is a good thing, Justin. It shows that you aren't him."

He nodded to that, swallowed, then resumed.

* * *

It didn't take much for me to get inside her mind - by that time, I'd done it dozens of times before. Images floated by. A lot of them were of me, and I was happy about that. Most of the rest were things from home, from our daily lives - clothes she was thinking about buying or wearing, bits of songs, images of Mom and Dad and Max, places at home and at school, that kind of thing.

The one that bothered me was Riley. I followed the thought and entered it, explored it fully, triggering other thoughts, other connections. It didn't take long to find out that she thought Riley was cute. She hoped he might ask her out, had been trying to get his attention, and that made me mad.

She didn't have any friends, that Alex - not even Harper. He drove them all away from her, so she wouldn't have anyone to turn to, except family. It made things easier. I knew she was cute, and that guys wanted her. But there was no way he was going to let her date.

I could have told her I knew, told her to stay away from Riley. She would have - she was afraid of what I could do when I was angry already, at that point. But I also knew that she'd resent it, and the more I did it, the more she'd resent it, until finally, she'd try to break free from me. And I was afraid she might be able to.

So I went to Riley. I found him the next day in the locker room at school. He wasn't alone, but that didn't matter - it even helped. They were good guys, but they were still teenage boys, so it didn't take a lot of pushing. I had to suggest the time and place to them, of course, so I'd be able to be there, but... it was easy, really.

* * *

"Justin?" He lifted his head, looked at Rose.

"What?"

"You stopped talking. I take it we're getting to the painful part of the memory?"

He nodded to that, grimaced. "Yeah."

"It's good. This is what we need to do. But I think you need to be calmer, before we go on. Close your eyes."

Justin did, and a moment later he was feeling calmer, could feel his heart rate slowing down, the muscles in his back and shoulders relaxing. He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath until he started to breathe again.

"All right. Continue now."

* * *

Alex was quite willing to follow Riley off into the auditorium, then backstage from there. The fact that she would set my teeth on edge. It was a good thing I'd acted when I did, it seemed - if she was that willing to go wandering off alone with him, all it would have taken would have been for him to ask her.

I held the crystal before me, sitting in the back of the library with it nestled between book and table, and watched them, ready to act when I needed to.

Riley stopped, looked at Alex, gave her a smile. She smiled back, and I gritted my teeth again. "So, Alex," he said then, "I've been wanting to ask you something for a while."

"What's that?" she asked, and Riley smiled a little more.

"Why you're such a stuck-up little bitch." I grinned and shifted, hunching forward a little to see better. Alex gaped, and Riley grabbed her by the arm, pulled her closer to him. "You're always quiet, never talking to anybody. You think you're better than all of us? Too good to talk to us?"

The other two guys who had been there when I found him came out then, and Alex looked around, then quickly ducked down, grabbing for the wand in her boot. They would've been toast against her, of course - but I - _he _was ready for this. He released the blocking spell as she cast hers, and she blinked in astonishment as her spell fizzled.

That was deliberate on his part - he wanted her to think her spell had failed, wanted her not to be confident in her magic. After all, if she got to thinking she was good at it, she might try to use it against _him_.

I seized control of one of their minds, had the guy grab the wand from her hand and throw it back somewhere into the darkness. He didn't even blink at it. It's amazing, really - people think just about any idea that pops into their head is theirs. Sure, they'll say 'I don't know why I did that' or 'What the hell was I thinking?' but almost no one ever thinks it's not them.

I didn't have to push Riley and the other guy to grab her. The lust spell I'd put on them, plus the ideas I'd given them combined with their own teenage hormones, and they did that all by themselves. Alex cried out, "No," started yelling for help, but I'd made sure there wouldn't be any help available.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex struggled, of course. She was used to not fighting back against me, but this was different. I watched as they pinned her down on a prop table, tore at her clothes. Once they had her pants down, Riley moved back and began to open his own.

They were all distracted at that point, and I teleported in. I - he wanted to give Alex a big scare, but she was mine - his - anyway, there was no way I was letting anyone else have her. Not for real.

I went for Riley first, ran up to him and hit him. I'd already cast a spell to enhance my strength and toughness, and he went down like a poleaxed steer. One of the other guys stepped forward and took a swing. I ducked it, hit him in the stomach hard enough to double him over, kneed him in the face. The third one ran, and I let him, calling out, "Touch my sister again and I'll kill you fuckers!"

Riley was still down. He wound up in the hospital, made up some kind of story about being attacked. He might even have believed it himself. Concussions aren't nice things. The other guy ran too, his nose bleeding. They wouldn't remember our little chat from earlier, so all they knew was they'd tried to rape Alex, and I'd shown up and fought them off. They weren't going to be telling anyone about that.

He grabbed Alex by the arm, pulled her up to sitting... and then he tore into her. "Alex! What the hell were you _thinking_? Don't you know better than to go off alone with somebody you don't know? What would have happened if I hadn't shown up? _God_!"

He kept that up for another minute or two, until Alex was crying her eyes out, sobbing, saying over and over that she was sorry, like it had been _her_ that did something wrong. Then came the good cop half. He apologized for yelling at her, used a spell to fix her clothes, wiped away her tears and held her, let her cry against his shoulder until she was calmed down enough to take her back home.

* * *

Justin shook his head. "That was the way... all the time, that was the way he worked. Knock her down, tear down her trust in other people, tear down her trust in herself, then help her back up. And she loved him for it. She was afraid of him... but she was more afraid of being alone. She kept coming back to him."

He paused, took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "And now I worry. Alex says she loves me... but she said she loved him too. This... this whole thing we have. Did I manipulate her into it? She started it, but... I could have stopped it. And some of what we've done - Alex likes it sometimes, when I'm controlling. Or she says she does. She looks at me sometimes, and... I wonder if she's afraid of me."

"Justin." He looked up again, at Rose as she spoke. "Listen to me. You know the answers to those questions already. You've never forced Alex to stay with you, have you? Have you ever threatened to hurt her if she left, or yourself?"

He shook his head again, swallowed. "No. I haven't. When we first started... she used to worry a lot that I just wanted her for the sex, that I didn't really care about her. I told her then that if she wanted to stop, we would. That I'd always love her, with or without it."

Rose nodded, smiling slightly. "That's the difference. Justin... I don't think you're abusing your sister. I know growing up in the mortal world, you've been taught that what you're doing is wrong. You have feelings of guilt about that, and those are combining with the feelings you're experiencing from these memories to make you worry."

She paused a moment, caught his eyes. "That's perfectly natural. But what you need to do is to talk to Alex about it. You can talk to her alone, or you can come in as a couple, but you need to talk to her. She needs to know about how you're feeling. Real love, lasting love, takes work. You asked earlier about how your double could love Alex, and still treat her like that. I didn't want to answer that question then, because I wanted you to keep going on your memory, and not get sidetracked. But the answer is, he didn't love her, not the way you do. From what you've said, he was fond of her, he lusted after her, he felt possessive of her - but her welfare, her happiness - those things he placed far below his own."

She paused a moment, then went on. "You want to protect Alex - I understand that. But sometimes, the best way to protect someone is to be honest with them, and tell them what's happening. I really think you need to do that with Alex."

It took a moment, but Justin nodded. "You're right. Thank you. I'll talk to her about it."

* * *

2: Max

_This world is not our home, we're only passing through._

_- _Gary Johnson_, "In A Cafe"_

"I'm not sure how this is supposed to work," Max said.

"It's very simple. Here, in a calm, controlled environment, you're going to tell me about your memories. This will let you experience them in a way that won't cause you distress." Rose gave Max an encouraging smile, said, "We can start with an easy one, if you'd like."

"Where does the magic come in?" he asked, frowning a little, and Rose let out a breath that wasn't quite a sigh.

"Not everything is best treated with magic. If some memories are problematic, we may remove them magically. But in general, I prefer less intrusive techniques." She thought for a moment, then said, "You know I've been working with your brother Justin as well, yes?"

"Yeah." Max nodded.

"Good. Normally that would be frowned upon, with the two of you being brothers, and your cases being so involved with each other, but in this case, Professor Crumbs and I both believe that it may be helpful. I already know about several things that Justin's double did to you, so you should feel that you can speak freely."

Max frowned a second, quirked his mouth, then asked, "Are you going to be telling him about what I say about him - about his double, I mean?"

Rose shook her head. "Not without your permission. If I think something that comes up here could be helpful to him, I may ask your permission to share it with him. But I won't do it without your permission. And, of course, the same applies the other way. Everything you say here is confidential, unless you give me permission to share it with someone else."

"Okay." Max nodded, then swallowed. Normally, he'd be saying something funny right now, blowing off the tension in the room, getting people to laugh. But right now, the back of his head was full of dark memories, and he couldn't find a joke in them. "So… how do we start?" he said instead.

* * *

I was twelve, the first time I knew something was going on. My magic hadn't come in yet. I woke up hungry, and I got out of bed, put on my dog slippers, then went out into the hall. I didn't turn the light on, because I liked it better dark, when it's night - it just seems like the way the night should be.

Anyway, I started to cross the hall to the bathroom, and then Alex came out of the Justin's room, and we bumped into each other. I asked her why she was coming out of his room, and she said I shouldn't worry about it, and asked me what I was doing up.

I told her I needed to get water for my lizard, because he was thirsty. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, and then I saw that she'd been crying. Or maybe she still was. I started to ask her what was wrong, but she brushed on past me, and went into her room, and locked the door behind her.

The next day, I tried to talk to her about it… but she looked at me funny, and she said she didn't remember it. I thought it was weird, but… weird was normal for our house. But it kind of woke me up, I guess, because I started noticing things after that.

* * *

Max paused, licked his lips, took a deep breath. "I guess you know about how he erased my memories, right?"

"Yes," Rose answered, nodding. "But you have all of them now, I understand?"

"Yeah… I - you know how they say that when you die, your whole life flashes in front of your eyes. Well, mine didn't. But I remembered everything. All the blocks came down, in that last second. And then when I came back… it was all still there."

Max lifted his right hand, traced his middle finger along the seam of the chair's upholstery. "I was so mad at Justin. I didn't know what to think, with both sets of memories there, and everything was confused - and then Alex was hugging him, and saying everything was okay, and from the way she acted, I knew she was the Alex here, not my Alex, and -"

Rose didn't say anything to Max's 'my Alex', but she made a note, nodded to him. "Go on."

If he realized that Rose had noted that down, Max gave no sign of it. "And she'd won, and Justin didn't have powers, so even if he was that Justin, he wasn't dangerous any more, I thought. And then she gave me the powers, and then told us about them, and… I kind of snapped a little."

"Tell me about that," Rose said. "When you say you 'snapped a little' - what were you thinking? What were you feeling?"


	3. Chapter 3

Max sat back in the chair, spreading his arms out on the armrests, and his forehead creased as he thought. Introspection wasn't something Max indulged in often, and he gave himself a few seconds before he answered.

"I was mad. Mad at Justin, mad at our Dad for not acting mad about it, mad at myself, for not seeing it earlier. It's..." He shook his head, said, "I've always been the fifth wheel. Everything's always been about Justin and Alex. He's the smart one, the good one. She's the bad one, the cute one. I'm just... the one who's left." Max shrugged as he said that, but Rose could see the pain in the off-hand expression.

"And it's not just our parents." He stopped, then bent forward. "It's not even just our family. It was like that in school too. All the teachers hoped I'd be like Justin, or were dreading that I'd be like Alex. The other kids…." Max shook his head again, looking down at the floor. "Everybody knew about Justin and Alex. They thought I'd be like them, or wanted to talk to me about them…."

Max trailed off, sighed, then spoke again. "Justin and Alex. They've always been focused on each other. To Justin, I'm just - I'm just another responsibility. Somebody to look after. I could go looking for trouble, like Alex does, but... Alex can be mean. This Alex, h- the Alex here can be. If she thought someone else was getting more of Justin's attention than she was, and she wasn't distracted by something else right then, like some new boyfriend, she'd find some way to get that person out of the way. Even if it was me."

"And in that other timeline... was it like that there as well?"

Max shifted uncomfortably, said, "Sometimes, yeah. But not always. That Alex... look, I know she was horribly screwed up, but she was _nicer_, in a lot of ways. She wasn't so competitive all the time. She pushed people away, but because she was afraid Justin might hurt them if she let them close, not to keep them away from _her_ Justin."

He stopped, and Rose could tell that wasn't all of it, that he was hiding something, but she felt it was too early to press there. Instead, she said, "I see. And what did you do to Justin, after you learned they were together?"

"I hit him. I chased him around a bit. I... I was taking it out on him, really. He was there, and I could hit him, and yell at him, and after what I'd just been through... Then Alex got in the way, and told me Justin hadn't cast any kind of spell on her, that she really loved him. I yelled at them both then, about how they'd always kept me out, and then I told them I never wanted to see them again, and teleported out."

Max raked his teeth across his lower lip, then his upper, was a bit surprised to feel the hair there grit against his teeth. _Need to shave._ "Tutor came after me. Not that that was hard - I didn't want to go back home, not right then. I knew _they'd_ be there. So I went to her place. Tutor's. She talked to me, calmed me down."

"What did she say to you?"

"Oh, you know…." Max looked up, gave Rose his usual 'I'm completely out of this' look. "She showed me her new puppy. It was really cute. Did you know dogs will eat their own barf?"

* * *

_Heaven and Earth are ruthless;_

_They see the ten thousand things as straw dummies._

_The wise are ruthless;_

_They see the people as straw dummies._

_- Tao te Ching_, traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu

"The younger brother is extremely good at dissembling. He's obviously had a lot of practice at concealing what he's really thinking." Rose sighed a little, then shook her head. "He's going to be a tough nut to crack. There's obviously something that happened that involved his sister, as his reference to 'my Alex' shows, but he's not going to want to talk about it. He's going to take a lot more work than the older one before he'll let me help him."

Rose paused, and the pen which was taking down her words stopped, hovered in the air over the paper. She gestured toward it, and the pen laid itself down on the paper, even as she said, "But helping them's not anything you really care about, is it, Chancellor?"

Sitting across the room, where Justin and Max had sat before, Tootietootie threw Rose a smile. "How long have you known I was here?"

"About as long as you've been there," Rose replied. She swiveled her chair around, then tilted her head. "I'm not comfortable with this, Chancellor."

"Yes, you've made that clear already." Tootietootie steepled his fingers, made a grimace of annoyance over them. "And I think it should be clear by now that I do not care. Now, if we're done with your protests for the day, tell me what I want to know."

Answering Tootietootie's annoyed look with her own, Rose shook her head. "Honestly, I think the Council is worrying over nothing. Justin is so invested in being an upright, moral person that it's almost scary at times. He really sees himself as a basically bad person, and rakes himself over the coals for every decision that he finds even remotely questionable. He's doing it even worse now that he's seen the alternate version of himself."

Rose rocked back, continued. "He's also completely devoted to his sister. I've worked with incestuous couples before, but... he's especially devoted, even for that. She's his whole world. Don't think you can use her as leverage on him, though," Rose said with a warning shake of her head. "If he really thinks you might hurt her, he won't stop at anything to end your threat. To be quite honest... he wouldn't hurt anyone on his own, but he still scares me."

Tootietootie waved a hand to the side. "Yes, we've watched Justin for quite some time. But now that he's bound himself to the Elemental Powers... he's a potential threat, but much less of a threat. Bonding to the four elements won't let him manipulate time. It's their potential to do that which is the true danger. I'm much more worried about Max now." He sat up straighter then, said, "You've talked about the boys. What about the sister?"

"Alex?" Rose gave him a puzzled look. "She hasn't come in so far, although I suggested to Justin that he should bring her with him. But why be concerned with her? She doesn't have powers now."

"She's still a strong influence on the brothers. And there's still the chance that the powers could wind up with her." He didn't mention Lexie's empowerment - Rose was outside the circle that knew of that, and Tootietootie preferred to keep it that way, for the moment. "And, of course, should it prove to be the next generation that we should be concerned with... 'as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.'"

"I'll raise the possibility to him again, but if I become insistent, he may begin to suspect that there's something else going on."

"He should trust you, since Crumbs recommended you to him," Tootietootie said with a smile. He stood up, straightened his robe a bit, then gave Rose a direct look. "I'll be back once you've had a chance to have a couple more sessions with them. I expect that by then, you'll have a clearer handle on Max. Understood?"

"Chancellor, I can't guarantee -"

Tootietootie cut her off with a wave of his hand, then shook his head slowly. "You can, and you will, or someone else who _will_ work with me on this will be found to replace you. Do you understand?"

Rose's eyes narrowed, but she nodded. "Yes. I understand perfectly, Chancellor."


	4. Chapter 4

3: Justin

_The mind is its own place, and itself_

_Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven_

_- _John Milton_, Paradise Lost_

It's a strange feeling, to be a predator. You look at the world differently. The people around you aren't _people_ - they're prey. Like a tiger looking over a herd of gazelles, you look for the young, the injured… the vulnerable. Those you can pick out of the herd and run down.

Sometimes, though - sometimes, they come to you.

Miranda Hampson looked into the mirror in the girl's bathroom at Tribeca Prep and sighed. _Why do I always wind up with the assholes?_ she wondered, as she got out her makeup kit and went to work on touching up the foundation around her left eye, making sure the bruise there was well-hidden.

The goth makeup helped with that. No one thought anything of it if Miranda came to school with her face covered in pale foundation. For that matter, expecting goths to be hanging out all night and such, they didn't really notice if she had dark circles around her eyes.

It hadn't been long since they'd moved, and the bruise was left over from her 'boyfriend' back in Chicago. They'd lived there for three years, the first year with Miranda's aunt Allison, while Miranda's mom had been getting a job. She finally got one with McGraw-Hill there, and they'd moved when she'd been offered a promotion that involved transferring to the company's headquarters in New York.

Not that I knew any of this at the time, of course. But that was her situation - fresh off a bad relationship, looking for another, but not wanting to get caught in the same kind of thing again. She was looking for someone who wasn't a 'bad boy', and who wasn't part of the popular crowd. Someone who seemed nice, and she didn't care if a little bit of weird came with it. In short, she was looking for someone who wasn't like her dad.

What she found was me.

Let's be clear here. The other Justin obviously wasn't nice - but like a lot of high-functioning sociopaths, he pretended well. You know how that goes, I'm sure - he was the kind of guy who, if people found out about him, they would have said 'oh, he was such a nice person. Wouldn't hurt a fly.'

We went to the junior prom together. Here, that was a fiasco - Alex had used _murrietta animata _on a pimple I had, and… well, let's just say the evening didn't go well. There, things didn't happen like that. Instead….

I walked down the hallway slowly, smiling. There wasn't any need to run - not for me. Down the hall, Miranda cast a glance back at me, ran around a corner. I heard her trying the doors there, grinned as I heard her frustrated cry. Those doors weren't going to open. Not for her.

She shook the doors again, and her cries became actual crying at that point, loud, wracking sobs. I turned the corner and found her there, huddled up against the doors, squatting down and turning her face against them, as if by not seeing me coming, she could make me not come.

So I turned myself invisible. Then I moved over to the side, against the wall, over to what would be her left when she faced away from the doors. Leaning against the wall, I watched her cry there, looked up and down over her beautiful body. Her hair was dark and shining, with red strands. Her dress was black and tight, with red trim and accessories to match her hair.

Sneaking out of the dance had been as much her idea as mine. And I have to say, it wasn't the most exciting dance ever. Heck, I half wish we'd done that here. Getting past the chaperones was easy, and once we were out in the main part of the school, we found a classroom and went into it. We kissed a little bit, and then Miranda wanted to go back to the dance.

I didn't. At first, she was reluctant, but willing to stay a little longer. Kiss some more. What she didn't know was that I'd been reading her mind all night. It didn't take much to find out about her past boyfriends, or about her dad. She thought about them a lot.

That bothers me a little, really. I know it shouldn't, but - if she'd trusted me with that, in our world, I can't help thinking I could have helped her some. Although, I suppose she was doing well enough. At least, without me messing with her….

I pushed her to stay a bit longer, to do a little more. And then, when she wouldn't, when she tried to leave - I grabbed her and put her against the wall, whispered to her that she was a dirty tease, and now she was going to get what was coming to her, as I edged by hand around her ass, pulling that tight skirt up a little at a time.

She struggled, of course, and I let her get away, let her think that she'd managed to get free. Miranda bolted from the room, and I pulled out my wand and went to work. She wouldn't be able to get away, not once I was done.

First, of course, she tried to get back to the dance. Those doors I locked and soundproofed, so she could bang on them and scream all she wanted, and the chaperones watching behind them would never hear her.

"Nobody's listening," I called out, coming toward her. "Nobody but me. But that's how you want it, really, isn't it? That's why you keep picking guys who beat you, who make you do things. Because really, deep down inside, you want it, but you just don't have the guts to admit it."

"No! I wanted to go out with you because you were _nice_!" She swung her purse at me, and I knocked it aside with my hand. I grabbed for her, but slowly, let her get away again.

I chased her for a good ten minutes, locking every door she tried, before she finally broke down. Then I turned invisible, watched that pretty face get streaked with tears, until she realized that I should have been there by then, went and peeked around the corner. I let her venture out into the hallway, let her start to feel relief that somehow, the nightmare was over.

Then I became visible behind her, cast another spell as I did. It was complex, but didn't require much real power - a target-sensitive illusion, one that would fill in my appearance from her own expectations. I'd been reading her mind the whole time she was running, and now I knew what she was most afraid of.

In my best guess as to her father's voice, I said, "It's time to go home, pumpkin. Daddy's here for you." She turned then, looked at me - looking about half a foot above my eyes, as she looked on the illusion of her father - then screamed and fainted.

I hadn't been expecting that, and for a minute I was angry - angry that I couldn't keep the game up, couldn't torture her more right then. But then another plan came to mind, and I grinned as I took out my wand.

I opened her vulnerable, unconscious mind to me, then instructed her that she would remember what had just happened only as a dream. That further, she would remember me as having been a perfect gentleman at the dance, and that she'd gotten tired, and wanted to go home early, and I'd acquiesced, walking her home. When she awoke, she would call me, and apologize for having cut our date short, and ask me if I'd like to have another. Lastly, I told her that she would feel guilty about having included me in her dream, when obviously it was about her father.

I teleported Miranda to a place not far from her home, duplicated her, then used the duplicate to control her, made her walk back to her home, answer her mother's questions briefly, and go to bed.

Once Miranda was home and in bed, I dismissed the duplicate. It's strange - it's like he didn't have any interest in sex itself. He just wanted to hurt someone, to control someone. The duplicate wasn't real, so he didn't bother with it. Instead, he went home, and went to Alex's room. And that's when the trouble really started, that night...


	5. Chapter 5

Alex's room was dark when I entered it, but that wasn't a big problem. Unlike Max, she kept her floor clean, and I knew where the bed was. I knew it very well. Five steps forward, curving slightly to the left, and I was at the edge of it, a vague shape in the windowless dark.

I reached a hand down touched her, felt her shoulder, stroked my hand down across her arm. My eyes were starting to adjust to the dark, and I squatted down, moved my hand to stroke her cheek. It was wet, and I smiled a little. She'd been upset over the fact that I was going to the prom with Miranda, and to know that she'd cried over it felt like a little victory.

She opened her eyes and looked at me, looked at the clock, then blinked. "It... it's not even ten yet. I thought you..." She stopped, and I thought she was blushing a little, although I couldn't tell for sure in the dark.

I gave her a smile, said, "I thought I'd come back home and spend some quality time with my little sister." Standing up, I unzipped my pants, then pulled down the waistband of my boxers, put myself right in her face, then told her to get me hard. She nodded, knowing better than to fight... and that's when Max hit me in the shoulder.

That was pure luck. He was swinging a baseball bat, and if he'd hit my head, where I'm sure he was aiming, I probably would have been out cold, or too dazed to fight. I wasn't expecting it at all, and a combination of surprise, and well... being hit hard made me stagger sideways. He hit me again, but this time I got my arm in the way, took the hit there. I think it broke my arm.

I didn't have my wand out, but I didn't really need one for this. I did a quick '_McReary Timereary_,' and this time ducked forward as he swung the bat. The tip clipped my shoulder, but it was only a glancing blow, and I kicked backward, driving him back so I could turn around, reaching for my wand as I did.

He swung again, stepping back toward me, but I was already jumping to the side with an '_Edgebono Utoosis_' as I did. I pushed my duplicate toward Max, and he swung at it, giving me time to move around him and do it again, and then again. Three of me subdued Max, while the fourth made sure that Alex wasn't going to try to join in the fight.

He had a baseball bat, but we were bigger, stronger, and had him outnumbered. It didn't take long. I sent one of me out to make sure Mom or Dad hadn't heard, left two keeping Max pinned down. As for the real me... I went to Alex, pulled her off the bed, shoved her down onto the floor, then turned on the lamp.

"Was this your idea?" I asked, and she swallowed, eyes wide.

"Please... just punish me. Don't hurt him. It's Max. He... he saw you and me, and he thought, he -"

"He was waiting here in your room. Somehow, I find it hard to believe you didn't know that. I find it harder to believe that you two didn't talk about this."

Alex moved forward, on her knees, wrapped her arms around my thigh and leaned against me. "I tried to talk him out of it, really, I did," she pleaded, "He wouldn't listen, and he ordered me to be quiet and keep still, and..."

She was crying again, now, and I sighed a little. Of course. I'd put a lot of effort into turning Alex into a submissive little toy. I should hardly be surprised when she couldn't find it in herself to stand up to anyone else. That meant Max was the one I needed to take care of. Unfortunately, Max was my brother. Someone else, I might have simply killed. Max...

* * *

Justin let out a long breath, then looked up from the floor, met Rose's eyes. "He couldn't kill Max, of course, because the spell wouldn't allow it. Max had to live, for things to match up properly with our reality. He didn't figure that out yet, though, not then. At first, it was the difficulties that would have been involved with covering it up from our parents that stopped him. That was before he stole Evilini's magic, so he didn't have the power to erase something like that from their memories on his own, and he didn't trust a genie or something like that to do it properly."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Justin massaged a little. "Instead, he erased parts of Max's memory. Max had just learned about me... about him and Alex, so it didn't take a lot to do. And he wasn't as worried about damage, because well... it was Max. Max acting odd was normal, so it didn't matter if the memory erasing did other damage."

"I have to admit, you've piqued my professional curiosity," Rose said then, tilting her head a little to the side. "It's not often that we see the results of repeated memory erasure like this. Might I ask what spells you were using on Max? I gather he was the target, more than anyone else."

Justin looked at her for a moment, a bit surprised, then nodded. "Early on, I used 'cerebellum erasus' and 'non memento'." At Rose's barely-visible wince, Justin nodded. "Yeah, I know. Kind of a blunt instrument thing. But he didn't really care if he was damaging people's minds. Later, after he stole Evilini's power and memories, he used some of the subtler spells, but he was more interested in immediate results than in really understanding what he was doing. That's a big way we were different... other than the obvious ones."

He shifted a little in his seat, sat up a little straighter. "I erased Max's memory a lot, I'm afraid. Every time he found out about me, I had to. Until the competition, and then..." Justin broke off, looking down again. Rose didn't press him, giving him time, and after a minute, he said, "I'm sorry. I'm not ready to talk about that yet."

"That's all right," Rose said. "We'll come back to it. Right now, though... what happened with Miranda, after that?"

"I..." Justin took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did, then started again. "I was horrible to her. We went out again a few days later. I let her have a nice date, think that I was a good guy, all that. Then after she was home, I teleported into her house, soundproofed her room, and raped her."

Justin closed his eyes tightly, and his voice grew thick. "I hit her with another illusion when I did it. Made her see me keep shifting back and forth between being me and being her father," he got out. She avoided me for about a week after that, and then I went and found her, and acted hurt that she'd been avoiding me, asked her why. She wouldn't tell me, of course, and I acted confused, kept acting hurt, made her feel as guilty as I could."

"We went out again after that. I made a duplicate, put the illusion on it, had it come into the restaurant where we were, then helped her when she started freaking out." Justin shook his head, still looking down at the floor. "Then she told me all about it, but, of course, I already knew. Still, I made the right horrified noises, and..."

He paused again, swallowed, then spoke quickly, hurrying through it. "I just kept ramping it up, seeing how far I could take it before she broke. Went there with a duplicate at one point, made her think she was dreaming of her father and I raping her together. I..."

There was another pause, and this one stretched out a good ten seconds before Justin gathered himself and spoke, his voice again thick with emotion, tears beginning to creep out from his tightly-shut eyes. "It lasted ten weeks. In the end -" Justin took a breath. "She ran a hot bath, got into it, and slit her wrists wide open. They said she killed herself, but... I killed her, really. To see if I could. I -"

Justin broke off, stood up, shook his head, wiping at his face. "I'm sorry," he said, holding out one hand, palm out toward Rose. "I can't finish this today. I'm sorry." He pulled out the IPP control, pushed buttons with one hand as Rose stood as well."

"Justin, you shouldn't -" she started, but then he was gone.

* * *

"Hey... do you have a minute?"

Miranda looked up from _The Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology_, which was open on the counter in front of her and blinked at Justin. She opened her mouth to ask why he was there, but then she saw the red rims of his eyes, the carefully-controlled expression on his face, and simply said, "Sure. We can go in back. Jack's stepped out for a minute, but it's okay if it won't take long...?" She ended on a questioning note, and Justin nodded quickly, then followed her into the back.

The office in back was cluttered, with boxes of books that hadn't yet been put on the shelves, the computer that Jack kept the inventory on sitting on the floor, a mini-fridge and coffee maker tucked into the corner. Miranda didn't bother sitting down, but as soon as the door was closed, looked to Justin. "What's wrong?"

"I..." He stopped for a moment, then started again. "I know this isn't going to make much sense, but... I just came from my therapist, in the wizard world. We were talking about..." Looking away, Justin ran his fingers back through his hair.

Miranda stepped a little closer, put her hand on his elbow, and Justin twitched as if shocked, but didn't pull away. She wanted to hug him, but wasn't sure how he'd take that right then, so instead, she said, "You're hurting. I can see that. Justin... I'm your friend - yours and Alex's. You must've come here for a reason, so..."

He nodded at that, gave Miranda a quick, grateful look. "It's just... that other Justin, in that other world we told you about... he did some horrible things to you. We were just going over those, and... and I know it doesn't make any sense, that you're not the same person, but I just suddenly had to come here and see that you're okay." He stopped there, and silence hung for a second, and then Miranda smiled a little.

She moved her hand down to Justin's, squeezed. "I'm okay. But I don't think that's all you really came for. Justin..." Her other hand went to his cheek, and she set her palm on it, felt the faint traces of moisture there. "Whatever he did to her... none of it happened to me. You never did anything to hurt me. You're still one of the nicest guys I know. Don't beat yourself about what you didn't do."

"Thank you," Justin said after a moment.

"No problem," Miranda replied. There was another silence, and after a moment, Miranda moved back a little, taking her hands from Justin. "How are Alex and the baby?" she asked then, starting to feel a little bit awkward, alone with Justin.

"They're doing great," Justin answered. "We had the ultrasound a few days ago, and the baby looks healthy. Lexie keeps popping over all the time, now that she can teleport again. Well, she says she's just coming over to use our Lair, but she always talks to Alex when she does."

He went on, with Miranda smiling and nodding, encouraging him to keep going. She'd just talked to Alex the night before, so she knew everything he was telling her, but the important thing was to get Justin talking about something else, something happy, since she knew he'd brood if he didn't. It took a good ten minutes, a few more than she'd meant to spend, but by the time he left, Justin was smiling again.


	6. Chapter 6

4: Max

_Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,_

_Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not_

_Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither _

_Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,_

_Looking into the heart of light, the silence._

- T. S. Eliot_, "The Waste Land"_

She was always beautiful. I knew it even when I was little, the way you know the sun rises in the morning, or that your nose is on the front of your face. It wasn't anything that needed thinking about, it just _was_.

The first time it happened was just a little while after I got my powers. I found Alex down in the laundry room, crying. I asked her what was wrong and she pulled away from me, told me to go away, that she didn't want to talk. I went after her, took her arm, asked her again. She told me to go away, that I needed to hide, that she was in trouble, and she didn't want me to get hurt when he got there.

I didn't have any idea what she was talking about. Now I know, of course, but then - it hadn't been very long since the last time Justin had wiped my mind. I told her I'd protect her from whatever it was, and she started crying more... and then she kissed me.

She pulled away from the kiss after a second, and I just stood there stunned, looking at her. That was the first time I really _saw_ her, saw how beautiful she was. And three seconds later, before I ever said a word, Justin came into the room, zapped me unconscious.

That was the first time I fell in love with Alex.

It was doomed from the start, of course. There was no way Justin was going to stand for it. Talk about off and on relationships - ours was literally that. We'd fall in love, have anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks before the next mindwipe.

I asked her to run away with me, twice. She wouldn't. Even there, even the way he treated her, she always loved him more than me. She loved me - but him she loved and hated and feared and almost worshiped.

She was... she was a fragile, beautiful, broken thing. She was his, and he twisted her, and... and if he hadn't twisted her, she never could have loved me like she did. I never should have loved her like I did.

But I did. I _do_.

She was never mine, but I was hers. We never had a ghost of a chance, but we had the only thing that mattered - each other. I did the best I could to protect her, but it wasn't enough.

I was never good enough. I wasn't good enough for her to love me more. I wasn't good enough to protect her. I wasn't good enough to save her.

And now, it's all gone, and all I have is memories, memories that glow beautifully, like hot coals, and that burn just the same when I pick them up.

I'm in love with my sister. Not the sister I have, but the sister who was broken. I'm in love with a girl who I can never see again, never touch again.

A girl who never even existed now.

* * *

Max Russo laid down his pen and picked up his wand, looked at what he'd written. The side of his mouth quirked in something that wasn't a smile, wasn't a frown, but wanted to be both. _Wow. And my English teacher said I couldn't write. Just because she didn't appreciate 'An Ode to the Sticky Thing on the Bottom of My Shoe That I Don't Know What It Is'_.

He read through it again, more slowly this time, then set it back down. _All right. Here goes nothing._ Max took his wand, touched the paper with it, said, "_Words come from my head, now they're on the sheet, if my memories could go like that, wouldn't that be neat_."

And then he tore the paper, tore it again, ripped it to shreds. Max swept the shreds together into a pile with his hands, swept the pile off the edge of the table, cupped it in those hands and picked it up, cradled it to his chest, holding it reverently, like some holy relic. He carried it into the bathroom, and then he stopped.

_If this works... if I don't remember it any more... the only one who will remember her will be Justin. Is that what I want?_ For a moment he stood, breathing in and out as he thought. _I can't have her. All I can do is torture myself with these memories. But if I don't even have those..._

_If I let myself keep thinking, I'll never do it._ He moved then, suddenly, threw the ball of torn scraps into the toilet, slammed his hand onto the handle with a spasmatic jerk, knowing that if he tried to do it calmly, he'd never be able to do it at all.

The toilet flushed, and the water swirled, and then he was reaching into it, trying to grab those scraps, blinking hard to clear the tears that arose away so he could see, so he could take it back, save those memories -

And then they were gone. Max Russo half-fell back onto the cold tile of the bathroom floor and stared at his wet hand, wondered why he'd had it in the toilet.

He stood and moved to the sink, then washed his hands there, carefully. It was five minutes before he realized that he'd scrubbed them so much now they were turning red, and he had no idea why.


	7. Chapter 7

5: Rose

_Yesterday, upon the stair,_

_I met a man who wasn't there._

_He wasn't there again today_

_I wish, I wish he'd go away._

_- _Hughes Mearns, "_Antigonish_"

"He's erased his own memory. What we wanted to know is gone. I'm not sure that it matters, though, if even he doesn't remember it now." Rose shook her head slowly, looked up at the pacing Tootietootie. "He and the alternate Alex had some sort of relationship, but if he no longer remembers it..."

"The memories may be gone, but the emotional ties may remain, isn't that the case?" Tootietootie stopped in his pacing, leaned one hand against the overstuffed chair that Rose's clients normally sat in.

Rose took a breath and let it out, shrugging a little as she did. "It's possible, even common in some cases. Of course, whatever feelings he has may or may not transfer to this Alex - and Lexie - and, even if they do, without the associated memories, he might not realize that they're indicative of anything. Without knowing more about the lost memories, it's difficult to tell."

Tootietootie thumped the arm of the chair lightly, scowling. "This is not acceptable."

"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way, Chancellor, but there's not really anything I can do about it. If he used the spell I suspect he did, memory restoration is likely to be impossible."

"You'll try it anyway. We need to _know_."

Rose stood up then, dropping her notepad onto her desk. "No," she said flatly. "The likelihood of damage is too great." She folded her arms, said, "I won't do it."

"Then they'll no longer be your clients. Both the Russo boys." Tootietootie stepped closer, drawing up to his full height, which unfortunately was only an inch or so more than Rose's.

"No," she repeated, shaking her head. "You won't do that. If you try, I'll go to Crumbs. I'll tell him everything."

"You won't do that," Tootietootie said softly, and Rose smirked.

"I'm afraid your hold over me isn't as strong as you think," she said. "And these boys - they're not your playthings. Your concerns about what they might be able to do shouldn't -"

Tootietootie lifted a hand, and Rose's speech was cut off as she was suddenly slammed into the wall, tossed into it as if a wrecking ball had hit her. She pulled out her own wand, but Tootietootie waved his hand contemptuously and it ripped from her grasp, flew across the room. "Do you think I'm _playing_?" The voice changed in mid-sentence, and Rose's eyes grew wide as Tootietootie's face melted away, replaced by another.

"You... you're not Tootietootie..."

He stepped forward, crouched down in front of Rose, then smiled, an easy, awful smile that drove her to crawl away from him. Moving backwards, she raised her hand and opened her mouth for a spell, but the man stood quickly and kicked her in the stomach, driving the wind out of her, then kicked her twice more. Then he crouched again, putting a hand on Rose's head as he did, spoke a word, and Rose went limp, unconscious.

The man turned her head with his hand, looked at her for a moment, then stood back up and walked across the room, picked up Rose's wand and held out. "You don't mind if I use this, do you?" he asked, then paused a moment, nodded.

"Silence is consent," he said cheerfully, then held out the wand toward her. Rose drifted up into the air, over to her couch, then onto it, laid on it as if she were merely napping. Walking to her, he used the wand again, this time to slide the chair he'd been sitting in before closer to the couch. Sitting in it, he reached out and adjusted the position of Rose's head with his right hand, then held her wand to her forehead with his left.

"I _hate_ memory work," he muttered, then shook his head. "But killing her now would be too suspicious... and I may still have use for her." Gently, he smoothed a stray lock of hair aside with the tip of his wand, then began to work.


	8. Chapter 8

5: Justin

_No one knows what it's like_

_To be the bad man_

_To be the sad man_

_Behind blue eyes_

_No one knows what it's like_

_To be hated_

_To be fated_

_To telling only lies_

_But my dreams _

_They aren't as empty_

_As my conscience seems to be._

_- _The Who_, "Behind Blue Eyes"_

* * *

Justin Russo stood in the stairwell, panting and leaning against the wall. Below him, sprawled across the stairs, was the body of the blonde girl who had tried to fight him. She'd been reasonably strong, moderately skilled - but neither strong nor skilled enough to be a real threat.

She'd been threat enough, though. Alex had gotten away, and although he knew where she was going, he was injured now. Grimacing, Justin moved into corner, leaning back into it, doing his best to ignore his left leg. _She tried to turn me into a fish. Succeeded partway as well. _

_Never mind that now, though._ The girl had known him. He knew without a doubt that he'd never met her - yet she'd known him, had known Max, had known Alex as well. And that, plus the way that Alex had behaved during the Competition and after, confirmed what he'd suspected for years.

_I'm someone else's alternate reality. It explains so many things. And now Alex - the Alex from that other reality - is trying to end this reality, to return things to what she knows. _

He snarled and punched the wall then. Another Justin. Somewhere, in that other reality, there was another Justin - and for _this_ reality to have been spawned by a spell, where he'd made Alex pregnant, _that_ Justin had made another Alex - the Alex _he_ had been fighting - pregnant.

And she loved him. He'd heard it in the tone of her voice, when he'd caught her momentarily at the Competition grounds. He saw it in how hard she was fighting him, fighting to get back her own reality. _Damn her. Damn _him.

_I will not let them win. I didn't ask to be born - but I'll be damned if I'll let them kill me._ Justin gritted his teeth again, this time in a vicious smile, as he gestured at the body of the girl on the stairs, levitating it up beside him. _I'll have to work quickly. And then I'll need to erase my memory, so _that_ Justin won't know what I've done. But I can do this._

He conjured a knife into his hand, then quickly cut Tutor's still-cooling body, began to draw the diagram on the floor with quick, practiced strokes. _I need something beyond my own magic. Something that can cross dimensions, and won't end with my own physical destruction._ _And I know just the one._

But first - at any moment, his universe might end. Justin looked down at the fish tail that was his left leg, raised his wand and steeled himself. "_Incendio_," he whispered, and the light on his face was bright, casting the clenched muscles of his jaw into stark relief as he used the spell like a cutting torch, removing the leg. He'd chosen fire deliberately, to cauterize the cut as he made it, but even he was surprised that he managed the thing without fainting.

_Now then... _"_Geilsjay timesday_," he said, then grinned. _Can't set down a foot I don't have, can I? _Taking a breath, he continued working, more slowly now that he knew he wouldn't run out of time in the middle of things.

Ten minutes later, Justin looked up at the thing he'd conjured, standing inside the circle. It looked back down at him through beady eyes mounted in the head of a rooster, while its other head, a dog's head, looked about the room. It was the dog's head that spoke. "You have nothing to offer me. Why should I grant your desire?"

"I have given you blood and pain." Justin lifted his left arm, where he had cut into it. "You will have my soul, when the work is done. And all the pain and suffering I can inflict, I dedicate to you. Is this not enough?"

"You ask much, for such payment." The demon shook its rooster head as the dog head continued to speak. "I cannot give you what you desire."

"I could release you, into this world -"

It laughed, a sound like tearing metal that echoed up and down the stairwell, paining Justin's ears. "_This _world? This world is but a glimmering - barely more than a score of years old, and soon to no longer be. What would I, I who was old when the stars were made, want with it?"

Justin ground his teeth together. This wasn't working the way he'd hoped. And even though he could not set both feet down, he could not hold back the press of time indefinitely. "What can you give me?"

The demon told him, and he smiled as he nodded. "_Yes_," he said. "Give me that." And as his spell tore loose, and his reality shredded around him, Justin Russo laughed.

* * *

_Now, I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds._

_- _The Bhagavad-Gita

* * *

Author's Note: This is the end of _Broken Things_. More could have been done in this story, I know, but I didn't want to break my promise that nothing in it would be 'required reading' for following the main line of the AGP stories.

I hope you've enjoyed reading it.


End file.
